Tuesday, April 26, 2005

EVE Chat on May 5

OMGRAWR.net will be hosting the next EVE developer chat next Thursday, May 5, at 19:30 GMT/2:30 p.m. Eastern/11:30 a.m. Pacific. Details can be read at OMGR.net. Thanks to EVE-I for the news.

SWG Updates

The Star Wars Galaxies site has an article on cybernetics, artificial limbs that can be earned via quests on Kashyyyk, and an info burst on SWG: The Total Experience, the upcoming all-in-one bundle that will include the original game, Jump to Lightspeed, and the new expansion, Rage of the Wookiees.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

For the People, By the People: Saturday

Bridge Commander:

BCFiles hosts a trio of Delta Quadrant vessels by Queball: the Species 10026 starship, the Kazon Raider v2.0, and the Mawasi Cruiser.

Freelancer:

New at Lancers Reactor: fox's Freelancer Un-named Mod-Thing v0.8 Beta by 'fox' Unit 01 (requires the v1.1 patch) and Bounty Hunter's Revenge by Iron Sceptre (compatible with single-player and multiplayer).

Freespace 2:

The Wing Commander Saga team seeks mission designers, artists, voice actors, and modelers and unwrappers.

Master of Orion 3:

MOO3Guardian offers Invader Zim's Invader Mod: Ascension into Chaos v4.9 and MegaMod: The Antaran Rebellion v6.9.

Starfleet Command III:

Xander F's Hardpoint Editor v1.0 and the Island Wars Team's Island Wars v4.0 and the Island Wars Patch can be found at SFC3Files.

Star Trek Armada 2:

STA2Files has made available several recent downloads, including a number of maps (smefbob's eight-player Warzone and -=§FM=- Kirk/Cyclone's six-player map pack) and ships (Yacuzza's Centra Unicomplex Borg Station and Concept Tactical Cube (Final), david_of_borg's Buildable Rift Maker, and Sherman2's Greenfield-class Vessel), and a Borg Cutting Beam weapon by Beginner.

X-Wing Alliance:

The XWA Upgrade team has issued another model--Space Colony 3--which can be found in the "Stations" section of the downloads.

X2:

New X2 scripts include SpaceTycoon's Camouflage Device ST1 v1.0, which makes rival ships not attack the player ship within a specified range, and adam00's AS.Antymissiles v1.01, an updated version of a script that fires Mosquito missiles against incoming missiles.

Heads Up: Enterprise: The Game

Thanks to STGU (via TrekPulse) for pointing to a new scrolling, arcade shooter entitled Enterprise: The Game. The freeware game can be downloaded at the game's website.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

GalCiv 2 Preview + Wardell on UI

This is especially not news if you're currently participating in the beta, but Gamespy serves up a beta-based preview of Stardock's Galactic Civilizations 2. Once past the "this is a beta" and graphics talk on the first page, the reader can pick up tidbits, such as the lack of restrictions on races, but there is not a great deal of substance to be found.

Also, Brad Wardell has posted on the GalCiv 2 forums that the next beta of the 4X game will feature user-configurable screens in-game.

Vendetta Online Updates

Guild Software's John Bergman has published a lengthy entry on the Vendetta Online news page that covers the reasons for the relative quiet associated with the game as of late. He touches upon the Wiki and also upcoming changes in the game (in a general sort of way). He also mentions that one of the games's four developers, Waylon Brinck, will be leaving the studio because of the desire to cover new terrain (in both games and in real life).

Star Wars Galaxies: Beta Test, Pre-order, and Blair's Blog

The Rage of the Wookiees beta test sign up has begun. Testers should be active SWG members in good standing with the Jump to Lightspeed expansion installed. Also, SOE is accepting pre-orders for the digital download version of RotW. Lastly, there's a new Blair's Blog about the Combat Upgrade feature.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

MMPOG Round-Up

SWG Stratics presents their log of the chat held on April 13 with a number of SWG developers. Also, the official Star Wars Galaxies site shares an article on space mining in the upcoming Rage of the Wookiees expansion.

EVE-I.com posts a developer blog by Talisman about event agents, missions, and the Gallente elections event.

For the People, By the People: Sunday Drive Edition

Bridge Commander:

BCFiles hosts JamesTiberiusKirk's JTK Torpedo Mod, zeljko's Delta Flyer, EXE, LC Amaral, and Durandal's Klingon Raptor, hjenterprises' Nemesis Bridge mod, KirkNcc1701's Ambassador Bridge v1.2 and Ambassador Bridge Retexture, and Brex's Ship Icon Pack.

Master of Orion 3:

MOO3 Guardian announces that Razeful's Mod has reached v1.2. The latest version, which is available at MOO3 Guardian, features AI, race, and technology tweaks.

Starfleet Command III:

SFCIIIFiles offers the Alternate Universe's Brother's Keeper Mod and Patch and Garreth MacLeod's Alternate B Expansion Pack Part Dieu v2.2.

Star Trek Armada II:

ArcherScott's Federation Defender is online at STAIIFiles.

X-Wing Alliance:

The XWA Upgrade site promotes the upcoming Space Colony 3 release.

X2:

SpaceTycoon has upgraded two scripts--Navigation Software ST1 V6 and Supply Software ST1.

Star Trek: Final War 2 Interview

STGU interviews Raccoon Software's Unimatrix325 about the Czech developers' freeware Trek space combat title. The article includes screenshots and details on gameplay, including ship upgrades, races,

GalCiv 2 Dev Blogs

A trio of recent developer blogs have materialized at the Galactic Civilizations 2 site. Carielf talks programming and bug squashing, while Draginol gives a comparative lesson (not directly GalCiv2-related) and some details on the Galactic Civilization 2 storyline.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Heads Up: Freehauler

At the Independence War forum, Art Director Michael Shane has posted a couple of concept art pics from what is expected to be a commercial space sim titled Freehauler. There are more details in this thread, which points to a link to public forums. From there, you can find the progress thread that is loaded with information and screenshots/concept art pieces.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Hardwar 2 Screenshots and Help Request

evacuate shares a series of screenshots from the independent Hardwar 2 project. He also mentions that the project is in need of specific help:

We are looking for somone with a solid foundation in C++ to help us with the progress of the game. If this is you, then please email service@screamengine.com.


Hit the thread for more on the progress of the project.

For the People, By the People: Tuesday

Battle of Endor:

Napseeker Productions' Invasion of Cardassia TC for the freeware Battle of Endor game has reached the v2.0 milestone. The latest revision features new ships, weapons, graphical tweaks, sound effects, and more. The required files can be downloaded at TFN or at STGU, which has an infoburst about IoC. Thanks STGU.

Bridge Commander:

Multiple developers have contributed to the Fun Bridge Commander Multiplayer Project v0.8, which introduces new technologies into multiplayer games. Full details can be found in the BC Files link. Also at BC Files reside Zambie Zan's Klingon-D Pack (twelve ships included), D and G Productions' "Year of Hell" Voyager (looks and responds like the Voyager in said episode), and USS Donoghue's MVAM Bird of Prey Beta v0.9.

Freelancer:

TLR hosts an update to the Lusitania System Mod by Dionisius and the Freelancer: The Complete Game Mod v2.0 by ~d'ar'qu_v+~.

Hardwar:

Max's Enhanced patch for Hardwar has again been reworked. Details and instructions may be viewed in this thread at Captain Zedo's.

Klingon Academy:

Terran_Defense gets trigger-happy, offering a prism of weapons effects (Aqua, Blue, Green, Rainbow, and Yellow. Other recent releases include Poktarl's Risa and Romulus (planets) and Romulan Talon-class Starship, and teeth03's Beta Landscapes.

Starfleet Command III:

G®33N>@L> has published a Customization Guide geared towards newbies (as seen at the Dynaverse.net forums). Also, SFCIIIFiles.com hosts two Babylon 5 ships by Unimatrix1--the Hyperion and G'Quan.

X2:

New scripts include milling_hordesman's MH_AdvJumper v1.5 gamma, which adds freejump, hyperjump, and autojump commands (milling_hordesman lists costs and equipment required in the thread), Carl Sumner's X2ConflictReport v1.12, which scans a specific folder and reports on possible script conflicts, and Roguey's Balance Mod v1.0, which tweaks a number of features in X2 (specific changes can be found in-thread). Also, Open Beta1.0b New Pirates Map/Mod Universe by mega | Doc has been released.

ST Neutral Zone 2 v2.3.3

Star Trek Neutral Zone 2 has been bumped up to v2.3.3. According to the game's website, the latest alpha allows the player to "manage shields, cloak and go to warp. Many bugs have been eliminated and the craft handling has been slightly improved."

X3 Chitty-Chat Boom Boom

There's more X3 news on the horizon, with the latest newsletter giving additional details about the latest X title from Egosoft. Topics include graphical and UI changes, a non-commital answer about changes in how the player moves about the gameworld, the Yaki, and the plot. The Q&A includes a pair of concept art shots.

Also, CGO speaks with Egosoft's Greg Kingston about new ships, the size of the gameworld, tweaks to the in-game economy, a possible X-Online Universe, and more about graphics.

Star Wolves Review

RPGDot reviews Star Wolves, the space strategy-RPG title from Xbow. The article gives details about the branching missions in the game, the Homeworld-esque elements that seem obligatory for any review about any other space strategy game, the RPG elements in the game, and the apparent Babelfished translation. Thanks Blue's.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Massively Multiplayer Round-Up

EVE-I.com shares a log of their April 7 chat with CCPers. Some of the topics covered include research, cruiser tweaks, stealth bombers, and agents.

The Star Wars Galaxies site has added concept art, an informational page about the Myyydril Caverns region, and a peek of the BARC Speeder and a pair of rideable mounts from Ep III: RotW.

FreeAllegiance.org's Pook has posted notice that an open-to-all game of Allegiance (new map included) will be hosted on April 17 in celebration of the game's fifth birthday.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Flatspace Review and Interview

Fragtopia has a very positive review of the indie space trader/combat game, Flatspace. In addition, they speak at length with Mark Sheeky of Cornutopia Software about his Star Wars versus Star Trek preferences, his programming history, developing Flatspace, Flatspace 2, and publishers.

Parkan II Gallery Updated

The Parkan II screenshot gallery has been "refreshed".

B5: SCTS Update

The Babylon 5: Starship Commander Tactical Simulator site has been updated with a list of completed Centauri and Narn ships, along with word that the Narn, Centauri, and Earth ships (3DGS MDL format) may be downloaded. Also, on the Starfleet Command 2 TC side, the Narn ships are available in a ship pack and as individual ship downloads.

Dallas Dickinson Interview and New Blair's Blog

Star Wars Galaxies SOE Producer Dallas Dickinson chats with MMORPG.com about the upcoming expansion for the game called Rage of the Wookiees. Some of the topics include space mining, the Wookiee/Trandoshan and Clone Wars conflicts, the combat upgrade, and new ships and sectors.

Also, there is a new "Blair's Blog" by not-Blair-at-all, Grant McDaniel, who is the project manager for the combat upgrade.

Monday, April 04, 2005

For the People, By the People: Monday

I've been holding onto some of this for several days, and some of the items are very fresh.

Freelancer:

Lancers Reactor hosts Porsche's E3 Jedi Starfighter, ColdFusion's Predator Super Heavy Fighter v1.0, and DriftingGhost13b's Swordfish MOD; all of them are compatible with single-player and multiplayer.

TLR also offers Falcon 2's Webrunner Beta 1 (compatible with sandbox single-player and multiplayer).

On the utility side of Freelancer modding, TLR also offers Tony Jackson's CRCTool Beta 1 that assists modders by scanning for certain files and then compiling a database with names and CRC hashes. Kurt Fitzner shares the source code and download of his Freelancer Model Clone utility (clones a model to allow for newly-skinned models to be incorporated into the game with ease) and Andy has provided FL - Quick v1.2, which shows a list of Freelancer servers and their static IPs.

Freespace 2:

StratComm's Fleet Pack 1 is now available (direct link is towards the middle of the second page of the thread). There are numerous screenshots throughout the thread to indicate the types of ships in the pack. StratComm has also converted a pair of ships by Raa so that they are usable within FS2.

The FS2Open folks have birthed a new set of MediaVP packs (v3.6.6) with new textures, models, sounds, and effects.

Hardwar:

max's Enhanced Hardwar patch has been updated; details and the download link can be found in this thread at Captain Zedo's.

Master of Orion 3:

Razeful's Mod has been updated to v1.1; MOO3Guardian offers the latest version of the mod, which includes AI-enhancements and various tweaks. Also, Paladin-007's has patched his Defensive mod to v1.1, which includes a bug fix.

Nexus:

Eater gives a taste of his upcoming Pirates campaign with a one-mission demo and has also issued a beta version of his Campaign Manager that allows users to manage multiple campaigns. Future versions may include an installer/uninstaller feature.

Also, frogger1108 rolls out a single mission called "New Conflicts".

On the franchise side of things, darkdrone's unleashed Star Trek: Universe at War v1.3. Details on the mod can be found in this thread at the Nexus forum or at the mod's site.

The Babylon 5: Conflicts of Loyalty site has opened and features a number of screenshots and other details about the campaign.

TheStressPuppy announces the impending beta of and shares a series of screenshots from the Age of War: The Original Series mod, which is based on the AoW: TNG mod.

Starshatter:

Sky_walker has released the v0.1 Republic Assault mod for Starshatter, along with a series of screenshots showing off ships, planets, and explosions in the Star Wars conversion.

X-Wing Alliance:

XWA Upgrade's Passenger Liner can be downloaded from the Transports section of the downloads page.

X2:

Nazgutek's Factory Loop Delivery Software v0.12, which "allows you to link factories to a 'Hub' factory to create a loop", is online. v0.12 contains a number of fixes. SpaceTycoon has also put together the v6.01 Navigation Software ST1, which tweaks the cost of same-sector jumps and eliminates duplicate target calculations.

New SE V Site and Screenshots

Malfador has unveiled the spiffed up Space Empires V website, which includes a list of accepted beta testers (and instructions for them) and eight screenshots.

Epiar Wiki

Epiar, the open-source 2D space combat/adventure title, now boasts a Wiki with documentation about the project.

Friday, April 01, 2005

STNZ 2 Alpha v2.3.2

Star Trek Neutral Zone Alpha v2.3.2 has been released. The latest version includes cloaking and warping.